ABSTRACT
This essay aims to address the overarching, yet neglected, question of quotation from Dante’s Commedia in texts conceived to be delivered orally, which became common especially in the fteenth and sixteenth centuries, although it must also have been a substantial part of Dante’s early reception. I shall devote particular attention to the sermons of Gabriele Barletta,2 a Dominican who lived and preached in the second half of the fteenth century and whose sermons are particularly rich with quotations from lay poets in the vernacular, including, as well as Dante, Petrarch and Cecco d’Ascoli.3 I shall explore the problem of the relationship between Dante’s written text and Barletta’s oral performance, as well as providing some insight on the basis of Barletta’s particular interpretation of Dante’s verses.
